Your book cover is more than just a protective wrapper; it is also meant to translate and indicate the internal content of your book. Hence, as an author, you need to consider making a cover design that attracts the attention of the readers as well as successfully depicts and enhances the story. In this blog, we will discuss some ways to create and design a book cover, whether you are a seasoned professional or a first-time creator.
Steps to Design a Book Cover
- Know your Reader and Genre of the Book
The first thing that you have to do while designing a cover is to understand your audience and the genre of the book. The cover art should be according to the target audience and the readers that you are catering to. For example, if your potential readers are young adults, you would prefer more colourful palettes, using illustrations, focusing more on depicting characters in the book, for example, fantastical characters, and more vibrant typography. Furthermore, the genre of the book also plays an important role in deciding the final design and layout. A book belonging to the genre of fantasy would utilize a more muted and darker colour palette, along with the use of metallic sheen to show mystical and magical elements. The typography would be more stylised, with the incorporation of hand-lettering elements in the font style. Hence, the cover of your book should be according to the book’s genre and the readers. This would help in the marketability factor of the book and enable your book to reach the right audience.
- Be Mindful of the Colour Palette
Another thing that you need to keep in mind for book cover designing is the choice of colours for your cover. The colour combination you pick not only gives some life to your book, but they are pretty effective in communicating the themes, message, and the genre. The right use of the colour palette helps the readers to have an idea of what the book is about or what they can expect from it. There are also some of the colour spectrums specified and reserved for a particular kind of genre. For example, an ideal colour palette for a self-help book would be white, light green, and blue. These colours are known for conveying tranquillity and serenity. In contrast, the ideal colour palette for the books of horror and thriller genres would be deep and darker shades of red and green, along with the combination of black. This would help in conveying suspense and mystery.
- Be Mindful of the Typography
Typography also plays a major role in depicting the themes and genre of your book. The stylised font attracts the reader’s attention. They also convey the core concept of your story through visuals. The font’s style, size, and arrangement on the cover speak volumes about your book’s tone, genre, and professionalism. Each font style is known for conveying a distinctive connotation. For example, Sant Serif provides a cleaner, bolder, and more modern look and is ideal for sci-fi, thrillers, contemporary fiction, and non-fiction. For denoting a more playful and bubblier tone and suggesting font style for young adult and children’s books, it is suggested to go for display and script fonts. Furthermore, it is important to be mindful of the whitespace, size of the fonts, and their placement on the cover. You need to be mindful that the title, name of the author, and other textual details don’t look either too cluttered, too small, or awkwardly spaced on the book cover.
- Choose the Right Visual Details
Choosing the right visual details is also very crucial to make your book cover impactful. It is recommended to choose the visuals and imagery that can communicate the themes and message of your book well. It is important that whatever visual detail you select carries significant meaning and symbolism with it. You should choose the imagery that translates the metaphors and symbolisms. Furthermore, the visual details that you choose should help evoke the emotions and vibe as per the book’s themes and genre. For example, if the genre is mystery and thriller, you should be using the visual elements, the textures that successfully indicate to the readers what they are going to find in the book.
- Getting Started with Design
The final step to take is designing the book cover. After getting done with choosing the right colour palette, visuals, and typography, you need to move on to choosing a suitable and affordable software to design the cover. As a first-time and inexperienced designer or author, you can select software like Canva, Adobe Express, Microsoft Designer, and BookBrush. The software provides a user-friendly interface, known for its tons of free features, and provides the designers with free samples that just need to be edited as per your book requirements. Furthermore, you can also reach out to online book writing services, as they not only have expert writers to complete your story but also artistic designers to create a perfect cover design.
FAQs
- What are some of the aspects of a good book cover?
A good book cover is known for telling the story about the book by conveying the genre, essence, mood, and core themes of the narrative.
- What is the biggest mistake authors make while designing the book cover?
The biggest mistake that authors make while designing the book cover is over-cluttering the design with too many elements, for example, too many visuals, not opting for the right font size, etc.
- How do I ensure that my cover connects with my ideal reader?
To ensure that your cover connects with your ideal reader, it is important to do audience and genre research. Furthermore, you can get inspiration from the other successful covers in your book’s genre and analyse what visual tropes they use.
Final Thoughts
Designing a book cover for your book and one that sells your book can be quite challenging. A book cover needs to be engaging and appealing, as it is the first thing that a reader notices, and many buy a book for the same reason. Whether you are a novice in the field or an experienced author, you need to be mindful of using the right colour palette, imagery, typography, and other important details like the texture to convey the themes and core message successfully. You should also carefully design the book cover that aligns well with the genre of the book and appeals to the targeted audience and readers.
